"I can't believe they released you." Neji shook his head.
"I was sure she was goin to put you in the loony bin for how many times you shouted 'ghost!'" Kiba started laughing.
"But I swear! They're there. I CAN SEE THEM! I'M NOT HIGH!" Naruto threw a fit in the middle of the street.
"Okay, Okay, calm down. Sheesh. Anyway, we're glad you're…okay now. I gotta go, later!" Kiba ran off and Neji and Lee followed suit, while Gaara chose to be cool and left when no one was looking, 'cause he's cool like that…yeah.
"Are you sure you're okay? You're breathing correctly? You can see straight? You have full control over your mind? …the same that you had before you got attacked." Kyuubi checked Naruto's charts every 5 or so minutes to see if he missed something or if some horrific information just crawled on the page.
"I'm fine really. Go to work, I'll be great! Nothing stops me! Tell Boss I'll be back tomorrow!" Naruto waved frantically as he ran towards their apartment.
"Bye Naruto! And be Care-…!" Kyuubi squeezed his eyes shut as Naruto tripped over a cat and landed on his face with his butt in the air. "You okay?"
"Mmm-eah!" He tried to reply with his face fully implanted into the sidewalk. He lifted his arm limply and waved Kyuubi off. The older cousin walked away reluctantly hollering a 'Good Bye,' before running off to prevent himself from being late.
"Oh, nice one, dobe." The ghost boy chuckled as he looked appreciatively at the round rump in the air.
"Who's there?" Naruto immediately regained his 'composure' and looked around until his eyes landed on a raven haired ghost about a year older than himself, kinda looking a bit disappointed.
"I'm Sasuke, the person who saved your sorry ass from my brother." He smirked.
"You're the teme?" Naruto questioned.
"Call me Sasuke."
"I like teme. Anyway, what are you doing?"
"Nothing." Sasuke sung innocently.
"Spying?"
"Oh that's such a harsh word."
"Stalking?"
"Do you know anything other than subtly?"
"Pre-meditative murder?"
"Ye- What that has nothing to do with anything!"
"Or maybe it has something to do with everything!" Naruto yelled.
Sasuke blinked. Naruto blinked.
Surely he realized that, that was uncalled for and really was just a random bout of stupidity? Surely he is not that much of a dobe. Surely you're joking…Well, no. No he's not and please don't call him Shirley.
"A-ha! I knew I was right! You just want my soul! Well you can't have it! It lives in ME! Not you! Meeeee!"
Sasuke blinked again…and promptly fell on the ground laughing.
"What's so funny?" Naruto held a cute puzzled look to the boy writhing in laughter on the ground. To which the boy responded with more laughter that went unheard by everyone other than Naruto.
"Sasuke-teme?" Naruto asked a little frightened by his outburst. The laughter died down to a few random chuckles until stopping completely.
Sasuke wiped an invisible tear from his eye. "A-haha…I haven't laughed that hard in years… no I've never laughed quite that hard."
"You're not exactly salvaging my sanity here by having me speak to you in public." Naruto deadpanned.
Sasuke blinked again. He put his face really close to Naruto's and floated around him in circles. "You have brain in there?"
"Huh?" Naruto looked puzzled again…"Oh! Uh, Nope, I just get little sparks of genius. Ya know? It's random really." He smiled cheekily as though he didn't just call himself stupid.
"…guh…" '…cute.' Sasuke never felt fuzzy inside before…and quickly smashed it to little pieces, Uchiha's never got warm fuzzy feelings and he'll be damned if he starts now.
"Let's go to my place so it doesn't seem so odd. Me talking to air and all." The fox-like grin not once leaving his face.
"Hn."
The way 'home' was carried out in silence. They walked to the threshold between the slums and the nice part of town and stopped at a fairly nice apartment.
"Takatau-oji-san!" Naruto shouted excitedly as he spotted the landlord.
"Ah. Naruto-kun. I see you're out of the hospital! I hope you're alright." He hugged the boy affectionately.
"I couldn't be better." He thumped his chest heartily with a fist after he stepped back from the hug, smiling goofily again. Honestly, was the boy made of stupidity and smiles, or what?
"Really? I heard you've been seeing ghosts and things." He had a glint in his eyes and crouched down to eye level with Naruto.
"You don't think I'm crazy too, do you?" A crystalline tear gathered in his eye and his bottom lip jutted out in a pout. 'Damn…cute…dobe…'
"Oh-ho-ho! Of course not!"
"R-really?" Naruto's eyes brightened and sparkled with childish giddiness.
"Sure as I'm going bald!" The old man chuckled. "Sometimes it takes a traumatic experience to get in contact with your inner powers." The old man nodded wisely. "Whatever happened to you must've been bad."
Naruto had an uneasy feeling in his stomach as he remembered what happened two weeks ago and things further in the past about his family. "Nope, nothing too bad! But I bet this ghost here gave me the powers." He gestured to his left where Sasuke would've been.
Sasuke himself knew the blonde was lying through his teeth when he told the man it wasn't bad with that smile of his wrapped around his face.
"Oh-ho-ho! Really? WELL MISTER GHOST, HELLO!" He said louder than necessary probably thinking that Sasuke wouldn't be able to hear. Naruto erupted into giggles as Sasuke smacked his hands over his ears.
"Its okay, Oji-san. He can hear you perfectly fine." He laughed.
"Sorry. Well, I'll leave you on your way. If anything interesting happens, let me know!" He shouted after Naruto as said boy ran up the stairs.
"Can do!" He shouted back and ran up the rest of the stairs to the very top floor, smiling all the way.
'Seven stories of running and he's not tired? He's got quite a bit of stamina… that could be put to good use.' Sasuke smirked.
Then he sprinted to the end of the hallway with Sasuke trailing not far behind. He shoved a key into the hole and jiggled it a few times and then opened it slowly.
"Well, welcome to your new home." Hey said happily.
"My new home?" Sasuke asked.
"Yeah. I thought since you probably had now where else to go, you'd want to stay with me. Is that okay?"
Instead of answering graciously he simply entered the house and looked around. There were two bedrooms, one was Naruto's the other was probably that 'Kyuubi' guy's. There was a nice bathroom, fairly large. Then there was a kitchen that connected with the living room. There was door in the living room that lead to another room that was used as an office/recreation room. Lastly there was a small closet near the front door. The rooms themselves were painted either a dark blue or a light slate blue the complete opposite of Naruto's personality.
He watched warily as Naruto walked across the room and to the couch where he plopped down with some ice and placed it on his chest. The blonde closed his eyes but he was still alert to the world around him.
"Does it bother you?" Sasuke asked.
"What? Hearing and seeing ghosts?"
Sasuke nodded but realized Naruto couldn't see so he spoke, "Yea."
"It did. I'm afraid of ghosts. Never knew why. They just scared me. Since I can't help it now but face them, I'll just grin and bear it." He smiled at Sasuke and it almost made the Raven melt. Sasuke knew somehow that, that's how Naruto faced a lot of things in his life. He really was optimistic, Sasuke liked it though.
"Hn. Good answer."
"Omigawd. Ah!" A sudden panicked voice hollered from above them.
Naruto fell off the couch. "What was that?!" He yelled.
There was a thud behind the couch and Naruto peered over it to see what it was. He saw a person but didn't know who it was.
"Teah?" Naruto heard Sasuke say.
TBC…
Nomi: Sorry for the longish wait. It's going to be odd intervals when I update because I'm moving Around December 2nd.
Mol: Nooo!
Nomi: Down to Virginia if anyone cares ( live in Ohio)
Mol: At any rate why is Naruto's brother suddenly appearing?
Nomi: That my friend is something you will find out when I update next time.
Mol: Die!
Nomi: But if you kill me then I can't write.
Mol: (Ponders) Write then! Then you'll die.
Both: Ja! R&R Please!
Nomi: Why am I always left crying and why won't anyone save me from her!? (cries)
Update 5/25/07: I'm not dead and neither is this story. I have just been in a slump trying to figure out my next step. Thanks to my friend, Princess Teah, I have a new plan for this. Yay! I'm updating soon at least within two weeks. Thanks for being so patient everyone! I love you!